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james_axton

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Outlook 2003 against Exchange errors out before starting

Running Outlook 2003 against Exchange 2003, a single user has wait times of around 5 minutes before finally receiving the "Retry / Work Offline / Cancel" window.  After selecting Retry there is another wait of a few minutes before Outlook eventually loads.  

This is running against Exchange and so there are no .pst files to deal with.  Caching is turned off so as to avoid issues with any .ost files.  Repairing Exchange failed to solve the issue, and running Outlook in Safe Mode doesn't affect the outcome.  IP / DNS is set to auto, and the cache has been flushed using 'ipconfig /flushdns'.  

We're trying to find a simple solution that doesn't involve tearing Office out by the roots and starting over.  Any advice here on getting Outlook to load normally as every other machine does would be welcome!  
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naomelixes
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This problem is only affecting one user on one computer? If you logon to the same computer with another user, does the problem still occur?
If not, just recreate the user profile, and set up Outlook again.
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james_axton

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I should have mentioned that - we did attempt to recreate the profile only to experience the same results.
Might be a network issue on that computer. Open a command prompt and do
Ping <e2k3 server name> -t
see if you get any request timed out

You can also try outlook /rpcdiag to see the servers outlook is trying to connect to and if it is connecting over TCP or HTTP
hi
a) Did you try running exmon against the users account
Guide here:
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Microsoft-Exchange-Server-User-Monitor.html

b) Can you try running Outlook in cached mode

c) What is the mailbox size of the user. if it's greater than 1/1.5 GB > Can you archive some emails out using ExMerge and then try connecting ?
Guide here:
http://www.madminblog.com/2007/07/archiving-email-natively-with-exchange.html

** WARNING** > Just follow the exmerge part in that guide.
First part deals with Exchange Journaling - which you are not attempting to do here.
Second part deals with Exmerg'ing the mailbox data out (two step process..

At this step:
https://picasaweb.google.com/mark.piontek/EmailArchiveBlog?authkey=Gv1sRgCNGK89eB0MSXzQE#5087561910522547570

You can select date range to archive emails and target folders, and archive emails out of those folders.

thanks
MegaNuk3, it connects via TCP, always with 1 fail.  There are no interruptions in network connectivity.
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MegaNuk3
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sunnyc7, Outlook in cached mode runs into the same issue.  The mailbox is not any larger or smaller than anyone other on the network.  It runs about average at 1GB.  exmon seems extreme in this case, but I'm not as familiar with it as you.  Should I really give that a try?

MegaNuk3, sunnyc7, I'll pick this up tomorrow morning and provide updates.

MegaNuk3, net view found the server straight away but Outlook still opened with the same pattern.  Very frustrating.
If another user logs onto that machine does the problem still occur?

Can you create a new test user and mailbox for testing the above, then we know it will be a new user profile and new outlook profile.
MegaNuk3, actually this might help you - different user, different profile, same machine, same result.  
Newly created test user or old user account.
So, definitely a computer issue...
Did you try cleaning your registry? Did you run Windows and Office updates?

MegaNuk3, an old user but one that's working, if that makes a difference.
Create a new test user please, just for my own piece of mind
Also, I went ahead and did a complete uninstall and reinstall of MSOffice 2003 and that didn't get it.  Frustrating!
A test user yields the same results.
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Another complete uninstall / reinstall (done manually) solved the problem, but I couldn't tell you why.  I'll award points for the assistance, and thanks to everyone for staying with this for so long.
Thanks for the points. Was it a complete uninstall of office or just Outlook?
MegaNuk3, I didn't see this reply until just now but I did a manual uninstall of Office as a whole.
Thanks for the update